Romans 4:1-8 “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that workteh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” (The above passage is a direct quotation from the book of Psalms).
If Abraham by what he did for God got God to approve him then, he could certainly have taken credit for it. However, the story here is God’s story, not Abraham’s story. In other words, God was the aggressor and the One. According to the above scripture, Abraham entered what God was doing for him and that became his turning point. That is, he trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own. Therefore, the turning point in his life was when he (Abraham) entered and accepted what God was doing for him as the perfect will for is life.
Romans 10:3 says, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God’. There is always something that God is actively doing in our lives and those things can never be what we are trying to do by ourselves. Abraham came to understand how to enter God’s plans. Thus, the story of Abraham is really a story of God at work in a man’s life and not really about the man doing things by his own self for God. It was God all along doing things for man and not the other way around. We must understand that when the life of a person suddenly turns in a very profound way it is because the individual has finally entered God’s plan and gained the approval of God rather than trying to achieve something by themselves.
In Psalms 30:1 it says, “I will extol thee, o Lord; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, o ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” This scripture is all about what God is doing and the way David praised the Lord. David speaks about giving the credit to God and extolling Him for His wonderful works. It also talks about him singing his heart to God for getting him out of trouble. The first thing I want us to notice in the above scripture is the power of praise when it comes to discovering our purpose in life. Praising God in prayer and then seeing the whole essence of that praise in the life of a person is one way of giving glory unto God for the things He hath done. Subsequently, the ability to communicate the truth about your experience with God to other people is very important and it is also a form of praise to God In other words, to declare His loving-kindness, to tell people about His faithfulness, to spread the good news and what you have experienced in Him is an act of worship. You must understand that everything God does hinges upon two things: first is that you keep not silent when you need to give praise unto Him and never attribute the blessing or breakthrough to yourself or anyone. The second point is that you must tell people about his loving kindness and faithfulness.
In conclusion all the praise must be to God and God alone. And as we live daily, we must endeavour to live a life that will always give God glory. A life that is devoid of self but full of godliness.
`Poju Oyemade